Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater

The U.S. use of clandestine aviation companies dates back to at least the Vietnam War. From 1962 to 1975, the CIA used its secretly owned airline Air America (which simultaneously functioned as a commercial airline) to conduct covert or secretive operations that would have sparked even more investigation and outrage if made public. “Air America, an airline secretly owned by the CIA, was a vital component in the Agency’s operations in Laos,” according to a paper on the CIA Web site written by University of Georgia history professor William M. Leary. “By the summer of 1970, the airline had some two dozen twin-engine transports, another two dozen short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircraft, and some 30 helicopters dedicated to operations in Laos. There were more than 300 pilots, copilots, flight mechanics, and air-freight specialists flying out of Laos and Thailand…. Air America crews transported tens of thousands of troops and refugees, flew emergency medevac missions and rescued downed airmen throughout Laos, inserted and extracted road-watch teams, flew nighttime airdrop missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, monitored sensors along infiltration routes, conducted a highly successful photoreconnaissance program, and engaged in numerous clandestine missions using night-vision glasses and state-of-the-art electronic equipment. Without Air America’s presence, the CIA’s effort in Laos could not have been sustained.” 67

In 1975, the Church Committee began investigating the legality of U.S. intelligence-gathering practices. The CIA’s chief of cover and commercial staff told the Senate committee that if an operational requirement like the Vietnam War should again arise, “I would assume that the Agency would consider setting up a large-scale air proprietary with one proviso—that we have a chance of keeping it secret that it is CIA.” 68

Decades later, the Bush administration, waging a war many compared to Vietnam, clearly saw the need for a clandestine fleet of planes. Shortly after 9/11, the administration started a program using a network of private planes some began referring to as the “new Air America.” The rendition program kicked into high gear, as the United States began operating a sophisticated network of secret prisons and detention centers across the globe, using the private aircraft to transport prisoners. Most of the planes alleged to have been involved in renditions under the Bush administration’s war on terror were owned by shell companies. In contrast, Blackwater directly owns its aviation division and has been public and proud in promoting its military involvement.

Blackwater Aviation was born in April 2003, as the Iraq occupation was getting under way, when the Prince Group acquired Aviation Worldwide Services (AWS) and its subsidiaries, including Presidential Airways. 69The AWS consortium had been brought together in early 2001 under the ownership of Tim Childrey and Richard Pere, who “focused on military training operations and aviation transport for the U.S. Government.” 70Presidential Airways was the licensed air carrier, and in addition to the Afghanistan contract, it has provided CASA 212 and Metro 23 aircraft for military training contracts, including some for the U.S. Special Operations Command. 71STI Aviation was the maintenance company for the Blackwater fleet. And Air Quest Inc. provided Cessna Caravan planes equipped with aerial surveillance—it provided surveillance planes in 2000 and 2001 to U.S. Southern Command for operations in South America. 72

“In addition to offering solutions for firearms training, steel targets and range construction and security needs, Blackwater now offers aviation and logistical solutions for its customers,” Blackwater president Gary Jackson said in announcing the acquisition. The new aviation division “complements our strategic goal of providing a ‘one stop’ solution for all of our customer’s security and tactical training needs.” 73

Blackwater also began developing a surveillance blimp that could be used to spy on “enemy” forces abroad or by the Department of Homeland Security to monitor the border. 74In 2004, Blackwater announced plans to move the operations of its aviation division to North Carolina and in 2006 sought approval to build a private airstrip with two runways for its fleet of more than twenty planes. 75“We have a fleet of aircraft that all have customers,” Jackson said. “Every single aircraft has a contract.” 76While the role these planes have played in the war on terror is not clear, Blackwater’s aviation wing fits the patterns of those companies that have been documented to be involved with renditions.

Blackwater aircraft have made stopovers at Pinal Airpark in Arizona, which used to be home to the Air America fleet. 77After public scrutiny forced the CIA to dismantle its fleet and sell the airpark, a company called Evergreen International Aviation, whose board included the former head of the CIA’s air operations, subsequently purchased it. 78As of 2006, Evergreen still owned and operated the airpark primarily as a storage facility for unused aircraft, largely because the desert climate allowed planes to survive longer with less maintenance. Not surprisingly, the company boasted in April 2006 of “four years of consecutive growth.” 79

Aside from their stops at Pinal Airpark, Blackwater-owned planes frequented many airports alleged to be implicated in the rendition program. Aero Contractors, which has received much attention recently for its connections to the CIA, was headquartered in Johnston County, North Carolina, which “was deliberately located near Pope Air Force Base, where the CIA pilots could pick up paramilitary operatives who were based at Fort Bragg [home of the Special Forces]. The proximity to such an important military base was convenient for other reasons, too. ‘That supported our principal cover,’ one former pilot [said], ‘which was, we were doing government contracts for the military, for the folks at Fort Bragg.’” 80Former chief Air America pilot Jim Rhyne founded Aero Contractors for the CIA, and according to one pilot, he “had chosen the rural airfield [Johnston County] because it was close to Fort Bragg and many Special Forces veterans. There was also no control tower that could be used to spy on the company’s operations.” 81Johnston County is just one of the airports frequented by CIA flights, according to experts. “Typically, the CIA planes will fly out of these rural airfields in North Carolina to Dulles,” according to the authors of Torture Taxi . 82

A glimpse of the flight records of planes registered to Blackwater subsidiaries Aviation Worldwide Services and Presidential Airways revealed numerous flights that follow these patterns and frequent CIA-linked airports: 83

• Since February 2006, N964BW, a CASA 212, has flown the route from Johnston County to Dulles; been to Pinal Airpark three times; been to Pope Air Force Base twice; been to the Phillips Air Force Base and Mackall Army Air Field; and has also twice landed at the Camp Peary Landing Strip, home to the nine-thousand-acre CIA training facility known as “the Farm.” 84

• N962BW, a CASA 212, has made numerous trips between Johnston County and Dulles and has been to Camp Peary, Simmons Army Airfield at Fort Bragg, and Blackstone Army Airfield near Fort Pickett. Its last reported flight was in September 2006, when it was headed from Goose Bay, Newfoundland, a NATO and Canadian Air Force Base, to Narsarsuaq, Greenland.

• N955BW, a SA227-DC Metro, is registered with Aviation Worldwide but has no recent flights. Nor does N961BW or N963BW, both CASA 212s. All of these planes have serial numbers that have not been assigned different N-numbers.

• N956BW fell off the radar in January 2006 just after beginning a flight from Louisiana to North Carolina.